As a general rule, I don't cheerlead for people I've written about. But I'll allow myself this: hats off, again, to Howard Jacobson, whose novel "The Finkler Question" was shortlisted today for the Man Booker Prize. Jacobson, one of Britain's most respected and funniest writers, did an interview with me a couple of weeks ago.

As a general rule, I don't cheerlead for people I've written about. But I'll allow myself this: hats off, again, to Howard Jacobson, whose novel "The Finkler Question" was shortlisted today for the Man Booker Prize. Jacobson, one of Britain's most respected and funniest writers, did an interview with me a couple of weeks ago.

Reading Adam Gopnik's superb essay on Winston Churchill in the latest New Yorker, makes you wonder what Churchill actually thought about Jews. That question seemed about settled when Martin Gilbert, Churchill's official biographer and a leading British historian, published "Churchill and The Jews: A Lifelong Friendship" in 2007.